HARMONY AND DISCORD AS LATVIA AND ROMANIA VOTE

The next stop on the European election train is Latvia, which goes to the ballot box today. The social democratic Harmony party has topped opinion polls all year, and is currently sitting at 21 percent, down from a high of 36 percent. Harmony also topped Latvia’s 2014 poll but ended up in opposition. The ruling Union of Greens and Farmers is polling at just 12 percent.

Harmony is one thing lacking in this weekend’s referendum in Romania, on whether to constitutionally define a family as heterosexual only. While the government says it is neutral, LGBT advocates such as the ACCEPT Association say the campaign is fueling hate and that the ruling PSD party’s fingerprints are all over some of the nastiest material, including a TV ad suggesting a No vote would allow not only same-sex marriages, but also polygamous marriages and marriages between humans and trees (yes, trees). The crucial number to look for is turnout, which must be above 30 percent for the result to be binding.

WILL #METOO ROCK MEP REELECTION CAMPAIGNS?

European Parliament staffers will start publishing their #metoo harassment stories on a blog — at www.metooep.com — from October 9. The organizers told EU Confidential their movement has the support of at least 1,000 staffers in the Parliament, and is dedicated to implementing a European Parliament resolution on combating sexual harassment and abuse in the EU.

POLITICAL IRONMAN PLAYS CATCH-UP

Alexander Stubb lays out his pitch for the European Commission presidency in this week’s EU Confidential podcast, as part of his effort to catch up to Manfred Weber, the favorite for the European People’s Party nomination.

Stubb is leaning heavily on his experience, noting that “if you haven’t been in the European Council with the prime ministers, if you haven’t been a prime minister really feeling the pressure and the heat, I think it’s going to be very difficult to handle the Commission presidency.” He also touts his track record as a Nordic moderate, saying he’s “a true European believer” who wants a “liberal democracy not an illiberal democracy.”

ONE-ON-ONE

David Davis, former U.K. Brexit secretary

David Davis did not take it easy after resigning from the British Cabinet. He rested for five days in the Lake District after quitting and then attempted to walk across England in five days, but injured himself on the way and had to stop. Why the urgency? Davis, a former SAS officer, complained that he “put on a stone in weight” while Brexit secretary.

Davis told London Playbook author Jack Blanchard that he isn’t intending to be a thorn in Prime Minister Theresa May’s side, just trying to be loyal to her original Brexit vision.

Ironically, it was loyalty that made his continued presence in Cabinet impossible, he said. “The problem with politics is sometimes you have an irreconcilable clash between principle and duty.” He said he couldn’t continue after May unveiled her Chequers plan for Brexit.

Perhaps it was always going to end that way. Davis started as Brexit secretary by calling for his new department to be named Department Ex — and in 2016 he was in the process of suing the government over its data protection rules.

Davis doesn’t have any major regrets though, aside perhaps from not calling up Jacob Rees-Mogg to collect him in his Bentley from Chequers when he realized he would have to resign and May had made clear the only way to leave her country residence was by taxi.

On the few occasions he came to Brussels to meet Michel Barnier, Davis said it was enjoyable. In 25 years of knowing each other, Davis said “Barnier hasn’t changed a bit, even down to his slightly filmstar looks.”

“The thing about Michel is that he’s very French” as well as “schoolmasterly” and “rigid.”

Davis defended his regular absences from Brussels by saying there would have been no point appearing in the Berlaymont press room until the U.K. produced a Brexit white paper that the two sides could work from.

The hardest part of the job was that “it’s no secret that most of Whitehall hates Brexit.”

What’s next? Davis compared the December 2017 EU backstop agreement on Brexit to the ill-fated Balfour Declaration from 1917 on creating a Jewish homeland. The upshot: When each party can interpret a document the way they want, it stores up long-term problems.

THE ANNUAL TORY CONFERENCE DISASTER

What is it about the U.K. Conservative Party and conferences? A year after Theresa May’s horror show speech — in which she was rendered speechless by a coughing fit, was interrupted by a comedian, and the stage set fell apart — the problems were still there. First, the phone numbers and addresses of Cabinet ministers and other party grandees were made available thanks to the world’s most hackable conference app. Then Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt made a direct comparison between the EU and the Soviet Union, which instantly shredded his credibility outside the Tory Party. Oh, and the conference took place at a convention center funded by EU regional subsidies. At least May’s speech went much better. As for her dancing on to the stage to ABBA’s “Dancing Queen” … at least it showed self-awareness. There was also a witty bartender who supplied “DExEU On The Beach” cocktails to conference-goers (it was vodka with grapefruit and pomegranate, since you ask).

SPEED DATING WITH BELGIAN POLITICIANS

If you’re thrilled at the prospect of quick-fire chats with a host of Belgian politicians ahead of the local election on October 14, then a) we’re slightly worried about you, and b) you should sign up to an event organized by the I Vote Where I Live campaign, which encourages EU citizens to vote in Belgium rather than their home country. Perhaps you’ll be lucky enough to meet one of the (unintended) stars of the election campaign, Luc Anus. He’s had some campaign trouble because his surname was deemed inappropriate for, er, family-friendly Facebook. According to the Daily Mail, he’s had to go by Luc Anu on the social media site instead.

TRAIN IN VAIN

Brussels consultant Louise Day was left fuming when she was stopped from boarding Thalys’ low-cost train service between Brussels and Paris — known as Izy — last weekend. Her crime? Day (and others) couldn’t find the train, which was not on the departure board. When Day found the right platform, she said an Izy conductor told her “this is the low-cost train, it’s like Ryanair, I don’t have to let you on.” Izy “reserves the right” to stop you getting on its trains if you arrive less than 10 minutes before departure. Day said: “The doors were open, he [the conductor] physically blocked them.” She complained to Thalys staff but was told it’s Izy’s problem and splashed out €107 on a new Thalys ticket. “We’ve been spending all morning discovering how this is no one’s fault but Izy … except Izy does not have customer service,” Day fumed. Izy and Thalys did not reply to EU Confidential’s requests for comment.

CATCHING OUR EYE …

Only in Brussels could someone in their sixth decade be touted as the next generation. Former Finnish Prime Minister Alexander Stubb is being presented as the fresh face the EU needs as its next European Commission president. Trouble is that at 50, Stubb is four years older than his rival for the European People’s Party nomination, Manfred Weber. The EU’s youngest head of government, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, is just 32.

EU GETS ARTY

The European Commission is promising to “use ART to tell the FACTS and strengthen democratic discourse.” What’s that? The EU Joint Research Centre is launching an exhibition called ARTEFACTS, using art to tell the stories behind EU policies, at the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin from October 9.

QUOTABLE

“Dear Jeremy Hunt. I was born in Soviet gulag and been imprisoned by KGB a few times in my life. Happy to brief you on the main differences between EU and Soviet Union. And also why we escaped the USSR. Anytime. Whatever helps.” — European Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis to British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt.